20 Ways to Make Extra Money

10 Minute Read

If you’re looking to make extra money on the side (and who isn’t?), it can be hard to know what’s legitimate and what’s a total waste of time. We’ve done the searching for you and found 20 ways you can make extra money in your spare time.

20 Ways to Make Extra Money

1. Get paid for your photos

Are you a shutterbug? Do you have photos of gorgeous sunsets and perfectly staged lattés cluttering up your camera roll? You can make extra money for your photos without having to be a professional photographer. Foap will pay $5 for every picture someone purchases from you.

Keep in mind, there’s no guarantee your photos will be purchased. But even if you only sell a few, that’s some easy money for something you’ve already done.

2. Rent your home

If you have a spare bedroom or can stay with your in-laws on short notice, you might want to consider renting out your home on Airbnb. Let’s say you decide to rent out your upstairs guestroom and bathroom. Here in the Nashville area, you’d have a monthly earning potential of $795.(1) Not too shabby at all!

But what about the risks of opening up your home to strangers? Airbnb offers accidental damage coverage on your home (up to a million dollars of coverage, to be exact). They also offer host protection insurance just in case a guest gets hurt while staying on your property.

While Airbnb doesn’t screen each individual guest, they do let hosts and guests rate each other. That way you can feel more at ease about who you’re letting into your house.

3. Drive for Uber or Lyft

If you’re strapped for cash but want to work on your own schedule, you might want to consider becoming a driver for Uber or Lyft. You can drive as much (or as little) as you want and set your own schedule. Plus, you get the added bonus of having interesting conversations along the way.

According to Uber, their drivers in Nashville can earn $1,100 for their first 200 trips.(2) As for Lyft, some of their drivers make more than $800 just by driving Friday nights and weekends.(3) Of course, the amount of money you make depends on your location and how often you drive.

4. Become a food delivery driver

Not too keen on shuttling people around? We totally get it. How about dropping off a to-go order of burger and fries? If you drive for Uber Eats, GrubHub or Postmates, you can make extra money in your free time just by delivering some food to hungry clients.

Plus, you won’t have to work for any specific food company like you would being a pizza delivery driver. But we’re not saying you can’t do that too!

5. Join a focus group

If you like sharing your opinion, why not get paid for it? Check to see if there’s a local focus group you can sign up for in your area. You could earn cash just for giving your thoughts on things like taste testing food or product comparisons. Just make sure you fit the demographic they’re looking for before applying.

6. Tutor online

If you think being a tutor means you made straight A’s through high school and college, think again. It’s all about what you know and how well you know it! Online tutoring companies like Tutor.com, TutorMe and StudyPool hire tutors to share their expertise with students on a wide variety of topics.

Just make sure you proceed with caution when deciding which tutoring gig to take. Some of the users on these on-demand tutoring sites are really just looking for someone to write their essay or do their homework for them. Use wisdom when sifting through the postings.

8. Take surveys to make money

Look into survey sites like MyPoints where you’ll get paid just for taking surveys and giving your opinion. Just remember, these sites are looking for specific criteria. So, you might have to wait for the right survey to come along that you qualify for. Plus, you’ll have to reach a certain threshold before you can “cash out” your points. It’s not a get-rich-quick opportunity by any means, but that extra cash can still add up over time.

9. Turn your commute into cash

Between commuting to work and driving the kids to soccer practice, most of us spend plenty of time in our cars. So, why not make extra money while you’re riding around? With Roadie you can get paid just for driving a package (or even a pet!) from point A to point B along your route.

And check your area for apps that reward you for carpooling around town. Here in Nashville, we have Hytch, which lets you earn cash for each mile you carpool with one or more people. You’re already driving into work each day, so why not get paid for it too?

10. Do tasks for people

If you’re just looking to do quick fix-it jobs or run errands on the side to make extra money, TaskRabbit might be your best bet. You can do all kinds of things from yard work to assembling furniture.

11. Review websites

Love giving reviews or checking out new websites? Are you good at determining how user friendly a website is just by spending a few minutes scanning the webpage? Companies like UserTesting will pay you to visit websites and give your feedback. They boast that you’ll get $10 per test you complete!(4)

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12. Rent out your car

If you have a spare vehicle that just sits in your garage for long stretches of time, you might find a car rental service like Turo to be a great way to make extra money. Let’s say your car’s market value is $10,000. If you rent out your car for just 10 days a month, Turo says you could make around $3,000 a year!(5) And don’t worry—the company covers your vehicle with $1 million of liability insurance as well as theft and damage coverage.

13. Take up babysitting

One of the easiest ways to make extra money on the side is to babysit for a couple of nights a week. And it might be easier than you think to land a gig. Most parents are always eager to have a date night! But sometimes finding a qualified sitter they can trust can be tricky.

Let people in your friend group, church and workplace know you’d be happy to watch their children in your spare time (provided they pay you, of course). And if it’s a little awkward for you to spread the news by word of mouth, you can always sign up for a service like SitterCity to help you land some babysitting jobs.

14. Start pet sitting

Are you an animal lover at heart? How about making some extra money just by taking someone’s dog for a walk or boarding their cat for the weekend? You can advertise your own pet-sitting business on social media, put up signs throughout your neighborhood, or use a website like Rover. They let you set your schedule and adjust your fees as you see fit. If you use Rover, keep in mind that they take a 20–25% cut of what you make.(6)

15. Deliver groceries

If you love the thrill of shopping but don’t want to spend your own money—this might interest you. With Shipt, you get paid to shop and deliver groceries to clients through their on-demand service. According to the company, their shoppers make anywhere from $16 to $22 an hour!(7)

16. Get rid of old movies, music and electronics

Channel your inner minimalist and get rid of all those dusty DVDs or CDs on your entertainment stand or in boxes under your bed. And make the whole process easier with Decluttr. You can scan the barcodes of items you don’t want anymore and see how much money the company will give you. Instead of waiting around for a buyer to maybe purchase your item, the company itself will buy your items outright.

17. Rent out your baby gear

Do you have baby items taking up space in your garage, but you aren’t ready to part with them yet? After all, you might want another kid maybe one day. Instead of selling that high chair or baby jumper, why not rent them? Oh, we’re serious. On websites like goBaby, cribs can go for $10 to $50 a day, and strollers can collect $15 to $40 a day.(8)

18. Sell unwanted stuff

Sift through your hall closet, attic and garage for everything you don’t use anymore. What can you live without? Of course, you can always sell items on eBay and Craigslist. But don’t forget about apps like LetGo, VarageSale, Poshmark and ThredUp that make it even easier to make extra money just by selling some secondhand stuff.

19. Sell your children’s clothes

Let’s be honest—those little people grow out of their clothes faster than you can keep up. When it’s time to get rid of the clothes they’ve outgrown, you have a few options. Put them out in your standard yard sale, sell them to a consignment store, or post them on social media. Apps like Kidizen are specially designed for selling your kid’s gently used threads. And of course, you can use other sites like Poshmark, ThredUp, Craigslist and eBay to sell children’s clothing too.

20. Start your own business

If you’re just looking for a quick way to make cash on nights or weekends for a short stretch of time, then maybe this one isn’t for you. But if you’re ready to turn your dream of starting your own business into a reality, there’s never been a better time to do it! Online platforms like Etsy, Amazon FBA and Big Cartel have made it easier than ever.

Give It a Shot

Try a few (or all 20) of these and see if you can generate a nice little chunk of change. Then use that extra cash to start hitting money goals like paying off debt, saving up for your emergency fund, or putting a little extra toward retirement. You might be pleasantly surprised at what you can do with a few extra dollars in your pocket.

No matter how you decide to bring home extra money, having a budget is essential for reaching your goals. Get our FREE budgeting tool, EveryDollar, to track exactly where all of those extra dollars are going.